CHARLES SPURGEON'S WRITINGS - FARM LABORERS

“I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase. Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor. For we are laborers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry.” — I Corinthians 3:6-9.

ISHALL begin at the end of my text, because I find it to be the easiest way of mapping out my discourse. We shall first remark that the church is God’s farm : “Ye are God’s husbandry.” In the margin of the revised version we read, “Ye are God’s tilled ground,” and that is the very expression for me. “Ye are God’s tilled ground” or farm. After we have spoken of the farm we will next say a little upon the fact that the Lord employs laborers on his estate: and when we have looked at the laborers — such poor fellows as they are — we will remember that God himself is the great worker: “We are laborers together with God.”

I. We begin by considering that THE CHURCH IS GOD’ S FARM. The Lord has made the church his own by his sovereign choice. He has also secured it unto himself by purchase, having paid for it a price immense. “The Lord’s portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.” Every acre of God’s farmcost the Savior a bloody sweat, yea, the blood of his heart. He loves us, and gave himself for us: that is the price he paid. Henceforth the church is God’s freehold, and he holds the title deeds of it. It is our joy to feel that we are not our own, we are bought with a price. The church is God’s farm by choice and purchase.

And now he has made it his by enclosure. It lay exposed aforetime as part of an open common, bare and barren, covered with thorns and thistles, and the haunt of every wildbeast; for we were “by nature the children of wrath, even as others.” Divine foreknowledge surveyed the waste, and electing love marked out its portion with a full line of grace, and thus set us apart to be the Lord’s own estate for ever. In due time effectual grace came forth with power, and separated us from the rest of mankind, as fields are hedged and ditched to part them from the open heath. Hath not the Lord declared that he hath chosen his vineyard and fenced it? “We are a garden wall’d around, Chosen and made peculiar ground; A little spot, enclosed by grace Out of the world’s wide wilderness.” The Lord has also made this farm evidently his own by cultivation. What more could he have done for his farm? He has totally changed the nature of the soil: from being barren he hath made it a fruitfulland. He hath ploughed it, and digged it, and fattened it, and watered it, and planted it with all manner of flowers and fruits. It hath already brought forth to him many a pleasant cluster, and there are brighter times to come, when angels shall shout the harvesthome, and Christ “shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied.”

This farm is preserved by the Lord’s continual protection. Not only did he enclose it, and cultivate it by his miraculous power, to make it his own farm, but he continually maintains possession of it. “I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.” If it were not for God’s continued power her hedges would soon be thrown down, and wildbeasts would devour her fields. Wickedhands are always trying to break down her walls and lay her waste again, so that there should be no true church in the world; but the Lord is jealous for his land, and will not allow it to be destroyed. A church would not king remain a church if God did not preserve it unto himself. What if God should say, “I will take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up; and break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down?” What a wilderness it would become. What saith he? “Go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.” Go ye to Jerusalem, where of old was the city of his glory and the shrine of his indwelling, and what is left there to-day? Go ye to Rome, where once Paulpreached the gospel with power: what is it now but the center of idolatry? The Lord may remove the candlestick, and leave a place that was bright as day to become black as darkness itself. Hence God’s farm remains a farm because he is ever in it to prevent its returning to its former wildness. Omnipotentpower is as needful to keep the fields of the church under cultivation as to reclaim them at the first.

Inasmuch as the church is God’s own farm, he expects to receive a harvest from it. The world is waste, and he looks for nothing from it; but we are tilled land, and therefore a harvest is due from us. Barrenness suits the moorland, but to a farm it would be a great discredit. Love looks for returns of love; grace given demands gracious fruit. Watered with the drops of the Savior’s bloody sweat, shall we not bring forth a hundredfold to his praise? Kept by the eternal Spirit of God, shall there not be produced in us fruits to his glory? The Lord’s husbandry upon us has shown a great expenditure of cost, and labor, and thought; ought there not to be a proportionate return? Ought not the Lord to have a harvest of obedience, a harvest of holiness, a harvest of usefulness, a harvest of praise? Shall it not be so? I think some churchesforget that an increase is expected from every field of the Lord’s farm, for they never have a harvest or even look for one.

Farmers do not plough their lands or sow their fields for amusement; they mean business, and plough and sow because they desire a harvest. If this fact could but enter into the heads of some professors, surely they would look at things in a different light; but of late it has seemed as if we thought that God’s church was not expected to produce anything, but existed for her own comfort and personal benefit. Brethren, it must not be so; the great Husbandman must have some reward for his husbandry. Every field must yield its increase, and the whole estate must bring forth to his praise.

We join with the bride in the Song in saying, “My vineyard, which is mine, is before me: thou, O Solomon, must have a thousand, and those that keep the fruit thereof two hundred.”

But I come back to the place from which I started. This farm is, by choice, by purchase by enclosure by cultivation, by preservation, entirely the Lord’s. See, then, the injustice of allowing any of the laborers to call even a part of the estate his own. When a great man has a large farm of his own, what would he think if Hodge the ploughman should say, “Look here, I plough this farm, and therefore it is mine: I shall call this field Hodge’s Acres?” “No,” says Hobbs, “I reaped that land last harvest, and therefore it is mine, and I shall call it Hobbs’s Field.” What if all the other laborers became Hodgeites and Hobbsites, and so parceled out the farm among them? I think the landlord would soon eject the lot of them. The farmbelongs to its owner, and let it be called by his name; but it is absurd to call it by the names of the men who labor upon it. Shall insignificant nobodies robGod of his glory? Remember how Paul put it: “Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos?” “Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul?” The entire churchbelongs to him who has chosen it in his sovereignty, bought it with his blood, fenced it by his grace cultivated it by his wisdom, and preserved it by his power. There is but one church on the face of the earth, and those who love the Lord should keep this truth in mind. Paul is a laborer, Apollos is a laborer, Cephas is a laborer; but the farm is not Paul’s, not so much as a rood of it, nor does a single parcel of landbelong to Apollos, or the smallest allotment to Cephas; for “Ye are Christ’s.” The fact is that in this case the laborersbelong to the land, and not the land to the laborers: “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas.” “We preach not ourselves, but ChristJesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus’ sake.”

II. We have now to notice, as our second head, that THE GREAT HUSBANDMAN EMPLOYS LABORERS. By human agency God ordinarily works out his designs. He can, if he pleases, by his Holy Spirit get directly at the hearts of men, but that is his business, and not ours; we have to do with such words as these: “It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.” The Master’s commission is not,” Sit still and see the Spirit of Godconvert the nations;” but, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” Observe God’s method in supplying the race with food. In answer to the prayer, “Give us this day our dailybread,” he might have bidden the clouds drop manna, morning by morning, at each man’s door; but he sees that it is for our good to work, and so he uses the hands of the ploughman and the sower for our supply.

Our great Master means that every laborer on his farm should receive some benefit from it, for he never muzzles the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. The laborer’s dailybread comes out of the soil. Though he works not for himself, but for his Master, yet still he has his portion of food. In the Lord’s granary there is seed for the sower, but there is also bread for the eater. However disinterestedly we may serve God in the husbandry of his church we are ourselves partakers of the fruit. It is a great condescension on God’s part that he uses us at all, for we are poor tools at the best, and more hindrance than help.

The laborers employed by God are all occupied upon needful work. Notice: “I have planted, Apollos watered.” Who beat the big drum, or blew his own trumpet? Nobody. On God’s farm none are kept for ornamental purposes. I have read some sermons which could only have been meant for show, for there was not a grain of gospel in them. They were ploughs with the share left out, drills with no wheat in the box, clod-crushers made of butter. I do not believe that our God will ever pay wages to men who only walk about his grounds to show themselves. Orators who display their eloquence in the pulpit are more like gypsies who stray on the farm to pick up chickens, than honestlaborers who work to bring forth a crop for their master. Many of the members of our churcheslive as if their only business on the Farm was to pluck blackberries or gatherwildflowers. They are great at finding fault with other people’s ploughing and mowing; but not a hand’s turn will they do themselves. Come on, my good fellows. Why stand ye all the day idle? The harvest is plenteous, and the laborers are few.

You who think yourselves more cultivated than ordinary people, if you are indeed Christians, must not strut about and despise those who are hard at work. If you do, I shall say, “That person has mistaken his master; he may probably be in the employ of some gentleman farmer, who cares more for show than profit; but our great Lord is practical, and on his estate his laborers attend to needful labor.” When you and I preach or teach it will be well if we say to ourselves, “What will be the use of what I am going to do? I am about to teach a difficult subject: will it do any good? I have chosen an abstruse point of theology: will it serve any purpose?” Brethren, a laborer may work very hard at a whim of his own, and yet; it may be all waste labor. Some discourses do little more than show the difference between tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee, and what is the use of that?

Suppose we sow the fields with sawdust, or sprinkle them with rosewater, what of that? Will Godbless our moral essays, and fine compositions, and pretty passages? Brethren, we must aim at usefulness: we must as laborers together with God be occupied with something that is worth doing. “I,” says one, “have planted:” it is well, for planting must be done. “I,” answers another, “have watered:” that also is good and necessary. See to it that ye can each bring in a solid report; but let no man be content with the mere child’s-play of oratory, or the getting up of entertainments and such like.

On the Lord’s farmthere is a division of labor. Even Paul did not say, “I have planted and watered.” No, Paulplanted. And certainly Apollos could not say, “I he planted as well as watered.” No, it was enough for him to attend to the watering. No man has all gifts. How foolish, then, are they who say, “I enjoy So-and-so’s ministry because he edifies the saints in doctrine; but when he was away the other Sunday I could not profit by the preacher because he was all for the conversion of sinners.” Yes, he was planting; you have been planted a good while, and do not need planting again; but you ought to be thankful that others are made partakers of the benefit. One soweth and another reapeth, and therefore instead of grumbling at the honest ploughman because he did not bring a sickle ‘with him, you ought to have prayed for him that he might have strength to plough deep and break up hard hearts.

Read the text. “Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one.” One Master has employed them, and though the may send them out at different times, and to different parts of the farm, yet they are all one in being used for one end, to work for one harvest. In England we do not understand what is meant by watering, because the farmer could not water all his farm; but in the East a farmer waters almost every inch of his ground. He would have no crop if he did not use all means for irrigating the fields. If you have ever been in Italy, Egypt, or Palestine, you will have seen a complete system of wells, pumps, wheels, buckets, channels, little streamlets, pipes, and so on, by which the water is carried all over the garden to every plant, otherwise in the extreme heat of the sun it would be dried up. Planting needs wisdom, watering needs quite as much, and the piecing of these two works together needs that the laborers should be of one mind. It is a bad thing when laborers are at cross purposes, and work against each other, and this evil is worse in the church than anywhere else. How can I plant with success if my helper will not water what I have planted; or what is the use of my watering if nothing is planted? Husbandry is spoiled when foolish people undertake it, and quarrel over it; for from sowing to reaping the work is one, and all must be done to one end. Let us pull together all our days, for strife brings barrenness.

We are called upon to notice in our text that all the laborers put together are nothing at all. “Neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth.” The workmen are nothing at all without their master. All the laborers on a farm could not manage it, if they had no one at their head, and all the preachers and Christian workers in the world can do nothing unless God be with them. Remember that every laborer on God’s farm has derived all his qualifications from God. No man knows how to plant or watersouls except the Lordteaches him from day to day. All these holy gifts are grants of free grace. All the laborerswork under God’s direction and arrangement, or they work in vain. They would not know when or how to do their work if their Master did not guide them by his Spirit, without whose help they cannot even think a good thought. All God’s laborers must go to him for their seed, or else they will scatter tares. All good seed comes out of God’s granary. If we preach, it must be the true word of God, or nothing can come of it. More than that, all the strength that is in the laborer’s arm to sow the heavenly seed must be given by the Master.

We cannot preach except God be with us. A sermon is vain talk and dreary word-spinning unless the Holy Spirit enlivens it. He must give us both the preparation of the heart and the answer of the tongue, or we shall be as men who sow the wind. When the good seed is sow, the whole success of it rests with God. If he withhold the dew and the rain the seed will never rise from the ground; and unless he shall shine upon it the green ear will never ripen. The human heart will remain barren, even though Paul himself should preach, unless God the Holy Ghost shall work with Paul and bless the word to those that hear it. Therefore, since the increase is of God alone, put the laborers into their place. Do not make too much of us; for when we have done all we are unprofitableservants.

Here we have mention of a personal service and a personal reward: “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.” The reward is proportionate, not to the success, but to the labor. Many discouraged workers may be comforted by that expression. You are not to be paid by results, but by endeavors. You may have a stiff bit of clay to plough, or a dreary plot, of land to sow, where stones, and birds, and thorns, and travelers, and a burning sun may all be leagued against the seed; but you are not accountable for these things; your reward shall be according to your work. Some put a great deal of labor into a little field, and make much out of it. Others use a great deal of labor throughout a long life, and yet they see but small result, for it is written, “One soweth, and another reapeth;” but the reaping man will not get all the reward, the sowing man shall receive his portion of the joy. The laborers are nobodies, but they shall enter into the joy of their Lord. Unitedly, according to the text, the workers have been successful, and that is a great part of their reward. “I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.” Frequently brethren say in their prayers, “A Paul may plant, an Apollos may water, but it is all in vain unless God gives the increase.” This is quite true; but another truth is too much overlooked, namely, that, when Paulplants and Apollos waters, God does give the increase. We do not labor in vain. There would be no increase without God; but then we are not without God: when such men as Paul and Apollosplant and water, there is sure to be an increase; they are the right kind of laborers, they work in a right spirit, and God is certain to bless them. This is a great part of the laborers’ wages.

III. So much upon the laborers. Now for the main point again.GOD HIMSELF IS THE GREAT WORKER. He may use what laborers he pleases, but the increase comes, alone from him. Brethren, you know it is so in natural things: the most skillful farmer cannot make the wheat germinate, and grow, and ripen. He cannot even preserve a single field till harvest time, for the farmer’s enemies are many and mighty. In husbandry there’s many a slip ‘twixt the cup and the lip; and when the farmer thinks, good easy man, that he shall reap his crop, there are blights and mildews lingering about to rob him of his gains. God must give the increase. If any man is dependent on God it; is the husbandman, and through him we are all of us dependent upon God from year to year for the food by which we live. Even the king must live by the produce of the field. God gives the increase in the barn and the hayrick; and in the spiritualfarm it is. even more so, for what can man do in this business? If any of you think that it is an easy thing to win a soul I should like you to attempt it. Suppose that without divine aid you should try to save a soul — you might as well attempt to make a world. Why, you cannot create a fly, how can you create a new heart and a right spirit?

Regeneration is a great mystery, it is out of your reach. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.” What can you and I do in this matter? It is far beyond our line. We can tell out the truth of God; but to apply that truth to the heart and conscience is quite another thing. I have preachedJesusChrist with my whole heart, and yet I know that I have never produced a saving effect upon a single unregenerate man unless the Spirit of God has opened the heart and placed the living seed of truth within it. Experience teaches us this. Equally is it the Lord’s work to keep the seed alive when it springs up.

We think we have converts, and we are not long before we are disappointed in them. Many are like blossoms on our apple trees; they are fair to look upon, but they do not come to anything; and others are like the many little apples which fall off long before they have come to any size. He who presides over a great church, and feels an agony for the souls of men, will soon be convinced that if God does not work there will be no work done: we shall see no conversion, no sanctification, no fired perseverance, no glory brought to God, no satisfaction for the passion of the Savior, unless the Lord be with us. Well said our Lord, “Without me ye can do nothing.”

Briefly I would draw certain practical lessons out of this important, truth: the first, is, if the whole farm of the churchbelongs exclusively to the great Master Worker, and the laborers are worth nothing without him, let this promote unity among all whom he employs. If we are all under one Master, do not let us quarrel. It is a miserablebusiness when we cannot bear to see good being done by those of a different denomination who work in ways of their own. If a new laborer comes on the farm, and he uses a hoe of a new shape, shall I become his enemy? If he does his work better than I do mine, shall I be jealous? Do you not remember reading in the Scriptures that, upon one occasion, the disciples could not east out a devil?

This ought to have made them humble; but to our surprise we read a few verses further on that they saw one casting out devils in Christ’s name, and they forbade him because he followed not with their company. They could not cast out the devil themselves, and they forbade those who could, a certain band of people are going about winning souls, but because they are not doing it in our fashion, we do not like it. It is true they have odd ways; but they do really savesouls, and that is the main point. Instead of caviling, let us encourage all on Christ’s side. Wisdom is justified of her children, though some of them are far from handsome. The laborers ought to be satisfied with the new ploughman if their Master smiles upon him. Brother, if the great Lord has employed you, it is no business of mine to question his choice. Can I lend you a hand? Can I show you how to work better? Or can you show me how I can improve? This is the proper behavior of one workman to another.

This truth, however, ought to keep all the laborer very dependent. Are you going to preach, young man? “Yes, I am going to do a great deal of good.”

Are you? Have you forgotten that you are nothing? “Neither is he that planteth anything.” A divine is coming brimful of the gospel to comfort the saints. If he is not coming in strict dependence upon God, he, too, is nothing. “Neither is he that watereth anything.” Power belongeth unto God. Man is vanity and his words are wind; to God alone, belongeth power and wisdom. If we keep our places in all lowliness our Lord will use us; but if we, exalt ourselves he will leave us to our nothingness.